Bemidji State 87 Wayne State 80

            Despite a career-high 23 points from sophomore guard Joel Heesch, Wayne State College suffered an 87-80 loss to Bemidji State Saturday evening in Northern Sun Conference men's basketball played Saturday evening at Rice Auditorium in Wayne.  Bemidji State improved to 6-3 and 2-3 in the NSIC while dropping Wayne State to 2-8 and 0-5 in league play.
            The first half featured 17 lead changes and eight ties.  The Wildcats held the biggest lead of either team in the first half at five points following a Jordan Holdsworth jumper to put WSC in front 24-19 with 12:02 to play in the first half.  The first half ended in a 42-42 tie, the eighth tie of the half.
            The second half was close early as neither team held a lead of more than three points until Bemidji State went on a scoring surge midway through the second half to take control of the game.
            With the score tied at 58-58 with 12:12 remaining, the Beavers scored seven straight points and took a 65-58 lead on a Cdoy Risseeuw 3-pointer with 9:05 to play.
            An Austin Esters three point play pulled WSC within four at 65-61, but that's as close as the Wildcats would get the rest of the way. 
            With WSC trailing 75-70 with 3:56 remaining, the Beavers went on a 9-3 run to take an 84-73 lead with 1:23 to play before finishing with the 87-80 win.
            Heesch led Wayne State in scoring with a career-high 23 points, going 8 for 12 from the field and 6 of 12 at the charity stripe.  Jordan Holdsworth and Jordan Cornelius each had 13 points with Trae VandeBerg adding 11.
            The Wildcats were 28 for 65 from the field for 43.1 percent, going 7 of 19 from behind the 3-point line and 17 for 24 at the charity stripe.
            Senior guard Brock Lutes scored a game-high 27 points to lead Bemidji State.  DJ Anderson contributed 15 points with Ben Best and Alexander Sattley each recording 10.
            The Beavers shot 50.8 percent from the field, making 30 of 59 shots.  BSU was 9 of 20 from 3-point range and 18 for 30 at the charity stripe.
            Wayne State held a 40-37 edge in rebounding over Bemidji State thanks to nine rebounds from Holdsworth while Lutes hauled in 11 boards to top the Beavers.  Bemidji State held a 17-2 advantage in fast break points over Wayne State and a 43-38 advantage in points in the paint.
            Freshman guard Tyler Nagy led Wayne State in assists with five while Heesch finished with three steals.    
            Wayne State will be at home again Thursday evening, hosting Mount Marty College in a non-conference game starting at 7 p.m. in Rice Auditorium.